Forbes: MoviePass Generates Almost $130 Million For Oscar-Nominated Films

MoviePass, the subscription service that allows moviegoers to see one movie per day for a monthly fee of $9.95, has undergone incredible growth through the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.

Its membership skyrocketed from 600,000 in October 2017 to 1 million the following December and grew to 1.5 million by January 2018. That growth is now being seen during the peak of Hollywood’s awards season. According to Deadline, since November 2017, MoviePass has drawn in $128.7 million for select Oscar-nominated films.

The acclaimed films include nominees for Best Picture, Best Animated Film and Best Foreign Film. MoviePass subscribers have also been able to see films featuring nominees for Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress as part of their monthly subscription.

According to Deadline’s calculations of the percentage of domestic box-office sales contributed by MoviePass, the coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name garnered the highest percentage at 8.79% ($1.1M), with The Shape of Watercoming in second, at 7.87% ($3.5M). Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri accumulated 6.89% ($2.8M), followed by Lady Bird at 6.18% ($2.7M). Steven Spielberg’s star-studded political drama The Post totaled 5.57% ($3.7M).

I, Tonya, the biopic about infamous US figure skater Tonya Harding is also a sweet spot for MoviePass: the service contributed 11.48% for the film. Chronicling the allegations that Harding was indirectly involved in an attack on fellow skater and opponent Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Winter Olympics, the film nabbed acting nominations for title star Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, who played her embittered and overbearing mother. The Square, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, also racked up 7.57% of its sales through MoviePass.

At such a low cost of $9.95 a month – less than a single movie ticket in many cities – and available at 91% of theaters in the United States, to many, MoviePass has seemed too good a deal to be true. The subscription does include a few limitations: Subscribers cannot see 3D movies and they cannot watch more than one per day.

MoviePass has been consistently evolving since it was first launched in 2011 when its sliding scale cost up to $50 more expensive cities. The monthly subscription fee was lowered to a flat rate of $9.95 in August 2017. It recently experienced conflict with film exhibitor AMC and removed some of their locations from the service’s availability. And more changes are possible: MoviePass is considering expanding to include 3D and IMAX films in its services.